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Is there any way of telling if a Sandisk memory card is a fake? I recently bought a Sandisk Extreme IV 4gb card off a seller on ebay,and it seems a bit tighter in my camera than my old 1gb card...it doesnt spring out when i hit the eject button.It has a serial number on the thin edge,so that part seems real,but i guess that wouldnt be too hard to fake.
Just wondering if anyone is there is a definite way of telling if a card isnt the real thing.

I remember seeing a web page about eBay and SanDisk fake CF cards and how to tell them apart.

Found it! http://tinyurl.com/2docat

dm_td5 wrote:I remember seeing a web page about eBay and SanDisk fake CF cards and how to tell them apart.

Found it! http://tinyurl.com/2docat

I just took a look at the link you suggested,thanks for that.It looks as though i may have a fake.Even if it is a fake,do you know if it still works as well as the real thing?

I recall reading that the fakes performed worse when put to the same test..

Most reports I have heard and seen said the same as Pehpsi. Why not test it against a real one transferring the same files. I would send it back, or is it one of those Ebay sellers where it is difficult to get your money back?

It is pretty obvious that the ebay seller that i bought it from is dodgy,because i went back to their id and it says that they are no longer a registered user on ebay.I only paid $35 for the card so i guess it wasnt any great loss.....and its the old saying "buyer beware".

That would definitely be a fake at that price Cheap card though. If you paid by paypal why don't you get them to honour the supposed buyer protection they offer?

Wowsers, I didn't even realise that I've been using a fake Ultra II 2GB for ages! Got it from ebay a while ago... Luckily, my Extreme IV 4GB is the real deal..

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1029509288

Glen wrote:That would definitely be a fake at that price Cheap card though. If you paid by paypal why don't you get them to honour the supposed buyer protection they offer?

I did pay with paypal,but im thinking,because the seller is no longer a registered user,it may be very difficult to get my money back.
Im not really too concerned about the speed of my new card,i want to use it pretty much for just portrait and fashion shoots,my main worry is picture quality.I have done a few tests and the quality looks the same as my genuine 1gb sandisk card,but i was wondering if anyone else has done a test comparing a genuine sandisk card with a fake one,and what their results.
Im doing a fashion shoot next week and i dont want to get home and find that a lot of the shots are no good,because of my cf card.

Think of a CF card like a hard disk. If it is below standard you could very well lose data or have files corrupted. It is less about the quality of the images you shoot and more about the quality of the files.

I wouldn't trust an important shoot to a fake card.

Thanks ATJ.Thats pretty much what i thought,i just needed a second opinion.I think i will make a trip to my local camera store,i guess thats the only way you can be sure you are buying the genuine article.

Seems like Paypal offers no safety net at all?

I agree with Andrew, if recorded your images will be ok, the question is about failure. Top quality cards are made of single level cells, lower quality cards are multi level cells. MLC hold twice as much data as SLC, but take 4 times as long to write to and last one tenth the time. Still $35 is a good price.

I lost a number of images from the weekend with my genuine 4GB Extreme IV, but not with the fake Ultra II! Go figure..

The second of those is a classic example of fogging. It's what happens when you open the CF slot while the camera is still writing to the card, and you permit light to hit the card before the file is closed for writing.

Getting back OT, the problem with the fake card is manifold. First of all, you have had the product misrepresented to you. Yes, maybe it's only $35.

This time.

It's fraud; you should do something about it.

The integrity of your data is important. Real cards can fail, but which sort of card would you think to be more reliable? The one that's backed up by a name and an organisation that you can go to, or the one that's backed by ..... oh yes, it's not backed by anyone, is it?

Speed - don't forget that there's more than just write speed involved here. The speed of off-loading the data from the card to your PC may also be an important factor: a faster card might be quicker to be able to be reused in a shoot. if you're just sitting around waiting for a dump to your PC, some cards won't even let you boil the water, while others permit a liesurely cup of coffee to be made and consumed.

My Extreme IV had a spaz today, the camera told me to format. Used 'PhotoRescue' to get the pics back, which it did, and it also found images I deleted a few months ago from a gig!! Fancy that..

Jeez, I just ordered 4 x Extreme IV - 8 gig and a couple 4 gigs, you guys calm it up, your beginning to worry me they will all fail !! Aghhh!